Parksville Save-On-Foods first grocery store on the Island with wine for sale

People in Parksville Qualicum Beach can now buy wine along with their groceries.

On Friday, the Save-On-Foods store in Parksville (818 Island

Hwy. W) had the grand opening for its wine department.

The Parksville location is the eighth grocery store in the province to have wine on its shelves, but the first on the Island.

Parksville resident Cheryl Schiebel said the new department is great.

“It’s nice to be able to get a steak dinner and buy your wine,” Schiebel said.

Store manager Colin Dixon said on Thursday when they were setting up the section, people were practically dancing they were so excited.

Steve Moriarty, director of Wines B.C. with Save on Foods, said the reaction has been good so far.

“(Thursday) we opened this department very softly and quietly — well not for very long. Hundreds of customers flooded our store and we sold hundreds of bottles of wine yesterday,” Moriarty said.

Moriarty added that the Parksville location has a wide variety of wines due to their partnership with the B.C. Wine Institute.

“Moriarty also thanked the City of Parksville for being open to this.

“That’s a refreshing change from some of the challenges we faced as we put wine in grocery stores.”

Parksville Mayor Marc Lefevbre said that when the provincial government started relaxing its legislature in regards to where liquor stores could go, some council members didn’t believe something like this could happen in B.C.

“There were a few councillors sitting around the table and they said ‘They’ll never sell wine in grocery stores in B.C.’ and I said, ‘Don’t be too sure of that because it does exist elsewhere .'”